Friday, October 29, 2010

Knowcase is a fun site for creating collaborative outlines. While I do like this site, I would enjoy it even more if it had more features such as adding photos or the ability to turn your outline into a diagram. That being said Knowcase is really nice when wanting to share w/ others and have them edit your outline.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My brainshark is a great site for creating online slide shows/presentations or adding voice/effects to existing ones. Also, this site can be used for a number of different educational purposes, such as creating a podcast, powerpoint, etc etc.

SymbalooEdu is a wonderful site that I just found out about from Kelley Tenkley's amazing blog, iLearn Technology. Symbaloo is ideal for educators to share links w/ students. This is done by creating an environment of sites that educators find and then share w/ their students (similar to the way it is in done in Diigo). Also, a ton of resources and videos can be found on here to help teach educators how to use this social bookmarking tool.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.

I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!

Juxio is a new (beta) site for creating visual mash-ups. Also, this can be used as a way to teach digital storytelling. What makes Juxio such an attractive option is how user friendly and polished this site is. Everything is drag-n-drop and even has an iPhone app for mobility.

Monday, October 25, 2010

LuLu is a wonderful site that meets all publishing needs. For example, a person can create books, ebooks, photobooks (similar to iPhoto), or calendars all from this site. For educational purposes I really am impressed w/ their ebooks creator. All a user has to do is upload a file, choose from some different themes, and then create their ebook.

I highly recommend checking out LuLu to meet all your online/offline publishing needs by clicking here!!!

21 Classes is one of my favorite blogging solutions for schools. This free site allows teachers to create student accounts (no email necessary) to post (up to 10). Also, there is a paid ($8.95 a mo) classroom package which allows schools to create a blog portal. This allows up to a 100 students to blog while teachers have control over what gets posted or if comments are allowed.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Joliprint is a great site for printing from the internet or PDF. It's ideal when wanting to print something and have it remove any ads or unnecessary content. All a user has to do is enter a URL and click print!!!

For a more detailed review check out Larry Ferlazzo's great resource sharing blog!!

Demo Slam is a new site from Google that I just learned about on Twitter from the amazing education consultant, Angela Maiers. DS is a fun site that lets users (when out of preseason mode) upload videos to Google and then have users vote on it to choose their favorite one.

Hopefully, some useful educational tech videos will be making their way on here soon.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Brain Honey is a new Content Management System (CMS) that is ideal for education. It is designed for educators to use as a place to gather/share resources, rack student progress and grades via a standardized system, and create parent/teacher portals.

Bumpzee is a site I just found out about from the wonderful professional guru, Kimberly Wright. Bumpzee is a site that is very similar to Skloog and SpeedyMarks that allows people to share their and organize bookmarks in a visual way. However, I'm not sure how appropriate this site would be for students due to some of the content, but it should be ok for teachers to use among themselves.

For looking for a better educational solution I would suggest Diigo for social bookmarking.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Linguee is a great site for translating and learning languages. All a user has to do is type in a sentence and select what language they want to translate it into. Results are then displayed by people who have translated similar sentences and the exact words are then matched up in bold text.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Middlespot is a wonderful new (beta) search engine that is a cross between (insert any search engine) and Wall Wisher or Edistorm. So, what does that mean? It means that a person has a virtual sticky note/wall that they can customize all they want. By clicking on the magnify glass user gets their search results in thumbnails that they can stick to their "wall" or trash.

I find this to be a rather innovative search tool and creates a unique browsing experience to each user.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Surf Canyon is an interesting new (beta) search engine that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. It has a rather unique way in which it refines it search after a search is done. An icon is displayed after a search and when it is clicked it offers different suggestion on what the user might like in real time.

Friday, October 15, 2010

"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"

Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.

That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...

Top 10 Blogging Solutions

Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.

Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.

Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.

Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.

Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.

Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.

Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.

Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.

21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.

Music Theory is an excellent site by Ricci Adams designed to teach different aspects of music such as: exercises, lessons, and tools. This really is a great site for music teachers as a user can use custom made tools for their lessons.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRix and Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.

I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Incredibox is a wonderful new site that I found out about from the excellent blog, The Education Technology Blog. This is a fun site for creating and mixing music similar to Soundation Studio. Another nice feature is how user friendly this site is to use being drag and drop w/ lots of different items to choose from such as: effects, voice, chorus, etc.

Encyclomedia is a video encyclopedia that is great for searching for articles and videos on any given topic (think United Streaming). What separates this from just any other search engine is to then take those results such as video and then share it w/ others via an embed code.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Docs Teach is an excellent site for teaching history and culture to students through the use of a variety of different kinds of documents. Not only does this site offer free resources but it is also a network that educators could join to share resources.

Friday, October 8, 2010

DeweyDigger is a very interesting site that is designed to categorize the web via the Dewy Decimal system. It works very much like a search a engine and the results are a combination of articles, pictures, and videos. Another feature I like is that a user has the ability to share their results page via a uniquely generate URL.

Click here to view the results from my search on the terms "technology/Education/Internet"

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kosmix is an interesting search engine that focuses on finding the best in social media content. After doing a search on Web 2.0 and Technology Integration, I must admit the results were rather satisfying as it displays it's content in a nice visual snapshot.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Pinball is a site from BBC that I just found out about the great blog, iLearn Technology. This is a site that is dedicated to brainstorming ideas for students. The way this is done is by 4 different sections. Each section focuses on a different area of brainstorming such as: firing out ideas, playing w/ images, etc etc.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.

Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics

Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.

ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.

Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.

Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.

12 Seconds is a wonderful site for uploading/sharing short video clips (12 seconds long) on the web. It works similar to the way YouTube works in that people can follow your "channel" then comment on it, share w/ others, or like it, etc.

I highly recommend checking out 12 Seconds as it is one of the easiest ways to do video updates on the web by clicking here!!!

Silentube is a bookmarklet that I found out about on Twitter from the Edtech guru, Ozge Karoglu. This bookmarklet is easily installed in a browser for eliminating all the background "noise" in YouTube, Vimieo, or Viddler.

PreZentit is a great new (beta) site for making slide show presentations similar to Shwup; in that a user can create a collaborative project and then share it w/ others to edit or make it public for others to view or download (think SlideSix). Also, PZ has a very nice looking and user friendly interface that makes it easy to use.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.